Building With Style: Beyond the Flat Ceiling

One reason small houses look small
is that the standard, eight-foot flat
ceiling creates spatial monotony in
small rooms. But there are various
design strategies that can help you
avoid monotony.
Many of the examples in this
article make use of light from above.
In fact, bringing light in from overhead,
or bouncing light from a
valance up onto a ceiling, is perhaps
the most important reason for breaking
up and out of the flat ceiling.
Keeping this in mind, the emphasis
will be on configurations that break
open the flat ceiling.
One simple device is a hole in the
floor above, which lets the space
below flow up and connect with
another level of the house. Two other
approaches